Learning till it hurts

The current Bears hope to benefit from what happened to the 2001 playoff team

January 15, 2006|BY MELISSA ISAACSON.

This was the sort of pain inflicted on both body and soul, a kick to the psyche and to the gut that the Bears did not see coming.

Jim Miller can still feel it, and not just on rainy days. His shoulder has been operated on four times since that fateful day four years ago when Philadelphia's Hugh Douglas drove him into the Soldier Field turf, sending the quarterback to the sideline with a third-degree separation and the Bears on a free fall from which they have only recently recovered.

Their last playoff appearance, on Jan. 19, 2002, resulted in a 33-19 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles that they recall with hurt and embarrassment.

"I just remember walking to the sideline and getting picked up and body-slammed," Miller said. "I think [Douglas] knew what he was doing, but it was naive on my part. I should've been prepared for that."

The current Bears say they are prepared for Sunday, when they return to the playoffs for another conference semifinal at home, this time against the Carolina Panthers, a team they already have beaten this season.

"The intensity is going to be there. It's the playoffs. It's time to go," said Brian Urlacher, a second-year player in '01. "We're a young group, but we realize how big this game is. We're not going to go out there and let down. We're going to play hard like we've done all year long."

They were confident in '01 as well. It had been a magical regular season, a 13-3 finish that not only won the division but also saved coach Dick Jauron from certain firing. But it was not an easy road, to be sure.

"It was ridiculous that whole year, an emotional roller-coaster ride," Miller recalled. "[Jauron] was worn out by the front office. First it's, `Is he going to get fired?' Then he's coach of the year and his contract is re-upped, because how are you going to fire the coach of the year? This guy was on a rope ready to get hanged, and enough was enough."

The '01 Bears needed to win their last four games to surpass Green Bay for the NFC Central title after losing to the Packers 17-7 at Lambeau Field on Dec. 9. But they always rebounded, each setback followed by a winning streak: six straight after a season-opening loss to Baltimore; three straight after the first loss to the Packers at home; and four in a row heading into the playoffs after losing in Green Bay.

They won by spectacular and star-kissed means: two touchdowns in the last 28 seconds to beat Cleveland, two overtime interception returns for touchdowns by Mike Brown.

They were a solid team, so good on defense with tackles Keith Traylor and Ted Washington playing in front of splendid young linebackers Urlacher, Rosevelt Colvin and Warrick Holdman that all they needed from the offense was that it didn't mess up.

"It's the exact same scenario as this year," said Bob Wylie, then the offensive line coach and now an assistant at Syracuse. "We got in on our defense with an offense that didn't score a lot of points. We had a good rushing team, the fewest sacks in the league and the No. 1 scoring defense."

What they lacked going into their first postseason game in seven years was playoff experience: Six players had started a postseason game, but only tackle James "Big Cat" Williams had done so with the Bears.

Williams advised his young teammates to act like they'd been there before. Urlacher, then 22, said once the ball was kicked off, he expected a "regular" game.

It was anything but.

"We went in riding high," Wylie said. "As much as we tried to tell players about being in the playoffs, they thought they were experienced enough. But a great percentage of the team hadn't been in the playoffs and didn't know what to expect. As soon as they turn the lights on, everything is quicker, and your focus and intensity has to be much greater. They didn't really understand it until afterward. Then they came back and said, `You know, you were right.'"

Many factors were responsible for the Eagles' domination, most notably third-year quarterback Donovan McNabb's overall performance. But the '01 Eagles, Miller said, were more physical than the Bears, and the Bears weren't ready for that level of intensity.

When Douglas sent Miller out of the game for good in the second quarter, Wylie said there should have been some form of retaliation:

"You've got to answer the call. If someone punches you in the mouth, you have to punch someone back. Somebody should've stepped up."

The experience gained in having gone through it, however, can be valuable.

"Urlacher and Mike Brown now, good players who got a taste of that, driven players to begin with, want to go back there," Miller said. "Other players can feed off that. I can imagine them saying to the other guys, `We've been there before, we made a mistake and took the Philadelphia Eagles too lightly and they kicked our butt. Let's not make the same mistake.'"